


Shockwaves

by Peregrine_Took



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Bloodbending (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:06:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26001634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peregrine_Took/pseuds/Peregrine_Took
Summary: He’d gotten caught up in talking to the badger frog. He realizes the ridiculousness of the statement and thinks to himself that this wouldn’t have happened if Ozai had been able to kill him like he’d intended, or if he never defected in the first place.-A look at the events following the day of the black sun if things had gone a bit differently.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 109





	Shockwaves

**Author's Note:**

> This is all entirely self indulgent hurt Zuko propaganda. Haven't decided if there will be more or not (probably not). Ignore the fact that I have no idea how the moon cycle works in relation to an eclipse.

He’d gotten caught up in talking to the badger frog. He realizes the ridiculousness of the statement and thinks to himself that this wouldn’t have happened if Ozai had been able to kill him like he’d intended, or if he never defected in the first place. He scrubs a his hands over his face and tries to push _those_ particular thoughts from his mind.

There’s no point in imagining another outcome. If his longwinded conversation with the badger frog had helped him realize anything, it was that Zuko knew he was making the right decision for himself and his nation. He just had to convince the avatar and his friends of the same thing, and what better time than the present? Every moment he wasted was another moment closer to the comet.

He looks towards out to the trees where he knows of the path that will lead him into the temple and to the avatar. He thinks of his time here three years ago, that now seems like a lifetime ago. All that wasted time spent scouring these very cliffs in hope that the last Airbender was just hiding out and biding their time. He makes his way through the trees, pushing branches out of the way as he goes, cursing himself for waiting so long into the night.

The sun set several hours previous and the moon is now high in the sky illuminating his way through the tops of the trees. He tries once more to light a small flame in his palm but it only lasts a few seconds before a particularly nasty shockwave wracks its way through his body and the flame is snuffed out as he regains his composure.

He’d redirected the lightning but he could still feel the effects of the charge in his bones and the slight twinge of the fresh burn it left across his abdomen. The aftershocks flare and send sparks through his body, from his heart to his arms and into his fingertips. Zuko thinks not for the first time that maybe he wasn’t actually ready to redirect lightning like his uncle thought. He takes a deep breathe and wills the extra energy in his body down and into the ground he walks over.

Not only does the pain come and go in waves, but he can’t seem to keep his own chi in focus long enough to keep the smallest of flame alive. All he can do is hope it will pass as soon as possible so he can actually prove himself helpful to the avatar. It would be a cruel but deserving twist of fate if he couldn’t regain his bending after defecting in such a bold way.

Zuko finally gets to a clearing in the trees, there’s about three feet of flat stone before the ledge drops off to the top of the temple’s structure. He overlooks the valley below and takes a breathe to steady the wave of dizziness that threatens to overcome him. _God this is so stupid, what am I doing?_ He takes a step back toward the tree line but collapses to his knee when a particularly back shockwave catches him off guard. Zuko’s left gasping for air when the ground around him shifts ever so slightly.

For a brief second Zuko is worried the ledge of the cliff is just too corroded and crumbled. He’d gotten too close and now he was going to plummet to his death. Another second passes but it’s not the air whipping around his face like he imagines, the ground below him swallows him and it’s earth moving around him and blinding him. He stupidly inhales right before the earth under him opens back up and he drops ten feet to his knees, coughing and sputtering out dirt and expletives.

Before he even has a moment to process what happened he feels a sharp, bitter cold encasing him up to his neck. It cuts him to the core and makes gasp, his skin still raw and sensitive. Zuko can already feel the cold leaching any warmth he was able to manifest in his core. He opens his eyes and is unsurprised to see the avatar and his friends poised in front of him, Katara standing slightly forward with one hand on her water skin and the other held out toward Zuko. The chill of the ice causes Zuko to shutter, though it goes unnoticed without proper room for movement.

“Hey- uh, I heard you guys down here, so,” He takes as deep a breathe as the ice pushing against his lungs will allow, “I just thought I'd wait for you here. I- I know you must be surprised to see me here-.”

“Not really, since you've followed us all over the world.” He expected push back, he prepared for this, but even the badger frog couldn’t have prepared him for the absolute malice in Sokka’s voice. Zuko’s heart rate picks up and he doesn’t know if he’s just more aware of his heart beating in his chest now that his body feels completely numb or if the electricity in his veins just has nowhere else to go.

"Right. Well, uhhh ... anyway ... what I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed, and I, uhhh,” _Gods_ he can already see on their faces that he’s not doing this properly. “I'm good now, and well I think I should join your group, oh, and I can teach firebending to you.” He looks to Aang, who to Zuko’s surprise actually seems like he’s considering the fire bender’s words.

The look of consideration passes when the uproar of voices floods his sense, “You want to what now?” - “All you've ever done is hunt us down and try to capture Aang!” - “You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are?!” He doesn’t think it’s possible for the ice to get tighter around his body, but at Katara’s words, dripping with vindictive anger, he thinks somehow it must have because his chest is so tight that he can’t seem to form any coherent thoughts.

“I've done some good things! I mean, I could have stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free. That's something!” _But compared to everything you put them through?_ “I can understand why you wouldn't trust me, and I know I've made some mistakes in the past-”

Sokka steps forward, his sword’s edge glinting the dim flickering light from their campfire, bringing the deep bruises that litter his skin to the surface. “Like when you attacked our village?”

“Or when you stole my mother's necklace and used it to track us down and capture us?” Katara’s hand comes up to the necklace in question unconsciously. “Or lied to me to gain my trust, while you and your sister worked to capture Ba Sing Se?” Zuko would rebuttal, but he strains against the ice unwillingly as an aftershock washes over him. The cold seems to make it worse as he struggles to catch his breathe. The pain is shooting from his chest to his hands and feet and back and forth like it has no where to go.

“Katara let him out!” Toph’s voice breaks through the haze, suddenly worried. She steps forward and grabs onto Katara’s arm. The reality of the situation comes crashing down very quickly and against every instinct Zuko can start to feel tears welling in his eyes, threatening to spill.

Katara doesn’t notice as she shakes off Toph’s grip, confused but still angry, “Toph, what are you-“

The ice around Zuko cracks and breaks away as the stone floor moves underneath it. He gasps pulling air into his lungs, bringing his hands to his mouth trying to get any warmth to his fingers tinged blue from the cold. He’s still shivering but the connection to the ground is helping him push the shockwave out of his body. It’s a slow process. His low body temperature, and now damp clothes from the ice, work together to prolong the experience. It feels like he’s being fried from the inside out, like a fresh bolt of lightning has come down from the sky and struck him where he’s curled on the stone floor.

He registers the group stepping in closer. Toph’s expression is completely open with concern while Sokka and Aang are both sharing varying degrees of worry and confusion. There’s no room for sympathy in Katara’s glare as she raises her hands again ready for anything. “Loo- look, I admit I've done s-s-some awful things.” His voice stutters with the persistent chill, “I was wrong to t-t-try to capture you, and I'm s-sorry that I attacked the Water Tribe.”

“There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done.” Aang looks like he wants to be saying anything other than the words coming out of his mouth, but he looks to Katara and his expression seals over once more. “We'll never let you join us.”

“You need to get out of here. Now.” Katara takes a threatening step forward and Zuko attempts to stand to defend himself but falls backwards on his ass.

“I'm trying to explain that I'm not that person anymore!” The warmth in his chest starts to build and bubble a little to close to the surface along side his frustration and anger. This is not what happened when he talked with the badger frog.

"Either you leave, or we attack.” Sokka makes his presence known once more, as Toph’s apprehension of the situation keeps her from intervening again.

Zuko tries to placate his voice once more, but the frustration and pain is getting the best of him and he just sounds angry when he speaks again. “I need your help as much as you need mine.” Zuko rises to his knees, making a move to stand. “If you won't accept me as a friend-.” He moves his arms forward, perhaps too quickly given the situation.

He means to ask them to take him prisoner, it’s a more deserving role for him with these people anyway. The teenage prince that dedicated the last three years of his life to hunt down someone he didn’t even know for sure actually existed. With the intention of what? Bringing them back home to his father? It’s not like he didn’t know what his father was going to do with them. The avatar couldn’t die without starting the next cycle, but a life of pain and suffering in a random cell in the fire nation?

Anyway, he would have considered his next move a little more carefully he’d known what happened next was even possible.

When Zuko jolts forward towards Aang, his arms up in surrender, everyone steps backward into their stances again except for Katara. She moves at a pace that rivals Azula’s, and suddenly it’s not the aftershocks of the lightning running through Zuko’s veins, but a sharp full pain that radiates from every nerve in his body. Every fiber of his being screams in protest and he gasps at the strain he feels from his limbs when he tries to move.

“Katara.” Aang’s voice sounds distant, uneasy but not necessarily upset.

Zuko looks to Katara who hold her hands straight out from her body in a way that he’d never seen. Too stiff and rigid to remind him of the usual movement associated with water bending, and when she snaps her wrist down, Zuko’s knees audibly crack on the stone of the floor. He lets out a cry of pain and that seems to spur Aang and Sokka into more action.

“Katara, he doesn’t deserve this.” Aang places a gentle hand on her shoulder but she refuses to look anywhere but to the boy she towers over.

“Why? He has taken ever opportunity to capture you, to find us, and for what? A promise of honor and a good start to his reputation as the next fire lord?” She moves again and Zuko’s body arches backwards and flat to the ground, with his knees still bent underneath him. The feeling of his body being ground into the stone causes him to let out a whimper from the sharp pain in his hips and shoulders. “He deserves this.”

“Katara what are you going to do? It’s not like he deserves to die.” Sokka’s voice is softer than Zuko’s ever heard it.

“Doesn’t he?” Katara’s voice is pitched low and Zuko knows he’s not imagining the pain thrumming through his body as the pain sharpens and he suddenly feels like he can’t breathe. He can feel something break inside of him and the pain is suddenly overwhelming. His chest seizes, his vision whites out and the voices are drown out by the ringing in his ears. A wash of warmth rushes over him and he thinks this might just be death as he loses consciousness.

———

“Why did you do that?” Katara whips her head towards Toph, both of arms immobilized in stone.

“You were killing him!” All she can feel are the light fluttery beats of his heart slowly returning to something resembling normal compared to the rapid and inconstant rhythm that Katara had been inflicting. “He was being sincere about wanting to help us.” Katara gives her a look of pure indignation as she pulls against the restraints. “Considering his messed-up family, how he was raised, Zuko chasing you guys around seems like the least of the issues you’ve faced.” Toph thinks now to Zuko’s uncle and what he’d told her all those months ago, _He's trying to figure out who he is._

She pulls once more against the earth around her wrists and Toph releases her wrists. “You’re right, Toph! Let's go and give him a medal. The "not as much of a jerk as you could have been" award!”

“All I know is that while he was talking to us, scared out of his mind and in pain, he was sincere.” She moves into Katara space and pushes a finger into the meat of her shoulder. "Maybe you're all just letting your hurt feelings keep you from thinking clearly.”

“Easy for you to say! You weren't there when he had us attacked by pirates!” - “Or when he burned down Kyoshi Island!” - “Or when he tried to capture me at the Fire Temple!” Aang speaks, but it’s as if he’s trying to convince himself of the anger that comes so easily to Sokka and Katara.

“Why would you even try to defend him?”

“Because Katara, you're all ignoring one crucial fact: Aang needs a firebending teacher! We can't think of a single person in the world to do the job! Now one shows up on a silver platter, and you won't even think about it?”  
They all look to Zuko who’s still passed out on the ground looking worse for wear. A moment passes before Aang nervously takes a step towards him. “Is he okay?”

“What does it matter?” Katara crosses her arms and turns away.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone unnecessarily.” Aang says it quietly, but it’s obvious it’s directed at Katara. He kneels down and sets his staff down. He gently reaches out but pauses, obviously not knowing what to do with his hands. He shifts his feet and wills the stone under Zuko to move once more, creating binding around his arms and legs. “Just to be safe.” He says so quietly, it’s obviously just him reassuring his actions to himself. Aang settles for Zuko’s shoulder, shaking him slightly, hoping to rouse him. Zuko’s head simply lolls to the side and Aang looks up, worried.

“His heart’s still beating, but it’s not quite … normal.”

Aang looks from Toph to Katara. “Katara-.”

“Do not ask me.” She snaps at Aang but immediately feels bad, it’s not his fault they’re in another impossible situation with _Zuko_. She might have lost her cool for a minute under the power of the full moon, but it’s no worse than the accumulation of things he’s done to them. And besides, he was moving to attack. Was she just supposed to let him burn them out? She’s seen the destructive side of his bad tempers and she’s hard pressed to believe he’s here without an ulterior motive.

“His breathing is really shallow Katara. Can you please just make sure he’s not going to-.”

Katara pulls the water from the ground where her ice had melted and pushes it over Zuko’s prone form. She may be healing him but there’s nothing gentle about the way she moves her hands over his body. The water’s only begun to glow when a small frown appears between her brows, and before anyone can ask what’s wrong she’s peeling back his shirt to reveal an intricacy of angry red lines. “What-.” Her fingers trail over the marks, healing momentarily forgotten. It looks like a root system branching out and wrapping around his entire middle, disappearing behind his back. “These are-.” She doesn’t have to finish the sentence. Aang looks down and sees the same marks, left by Azula, that stretch across his back. Only these are fresh wounds. Katara seals herself off, picks up the water, and continues to heal what she can. Checking for any other injuries as she goes.

She doesn’t feel bad for what she did. The idea of taking someone’s free will from them had terrified her and haunted her ever since their run in with Hama, but something about using it on Zuko left no bad taste in her mouth. The question of how he was hit with lightning is still fresh in her mind though. She’s never seen Zuko bend lightning himself, but she wonders if it’s an injury that you can inflict upon yourself. Accidentally or purposely.

She tells herself that it doesn’t change anything.


End file.
